


Lest The Memories Go Bad: Fight

by Webtrinsic



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Corruption, Dehumanization, Deku tree - Freeform, F/M, Fear, Hurt Link (Legend of Zelda), Hurt No Comfort, Korok's, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Not Happy, Post-Calamity Ganon, Prophecy, Recovered Memories, Religion, Sad Ending, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Sheikah Slate, Spirits, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, bamf Urbosa, corrupted champions, divine beast, the master sword - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:26:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29310273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Webtrinsic/pseuds/Webtrinsic
Summary: The blights don’t just conquer their Divine Beasts but their champions as well. With Link's memories crawling back, the battle is as mental as it is physical.
Relationships: Daruk & Link & Mipha & Revali & Urbosa & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Mipha (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	Lest The Memories Go Bad: Fight

**Author's Note:**

> the corrupted champions idea is top tier so i had to write my own, also sorry like i don't ship zelink whatsoever, him and mipha are my endgame forever

Slowly but surely his memories become more and more concrete. It is not as much of a relief as it should be, especially as he climbs the wooden steps that are gnarled beneath the souls of his shoes due to the consistent battering of talons walking over them. 

Link remembers Revali and his arrogance the second he fully steps onto the landing pad, the winds battering his skin driving in the memory further. Almost as if the champion Rito was still here, making currents for him to follow, urging him to hurry up and get to work.

But Revali was right, now, and when he’d first pointed it out a hundred years ago: he has no true way of getting up to that divine beast on his own. Thankfully and not, there is another Rito with the same plane as him, to stop Vah Medoh.

Maybe it’s wrong of him to fall into his fears now as Teba takes him into the air, bomb arrows heavy in his quiver. Link is no fool, silent he might be-didn’t mean his head was empty, and although he was a knight, who put others feelings above his own; with every little thing he learns, Link is terrified of what memories would return when he finally overtook the beast.

Just the thought of what would unfold both on the beast and within his mind loomed dangerously overhead. Instinct and simple intuition letting him know this wouldn’t be a pleasant experience. Link only wished he knew why, and Revali’s voice as he instructed him through the terminals didn’t give him any indication as if to why.  Not until he approached the blooming flower shaped terminal, sheikah slate in hand, did Revali warn him about his next foe. The very foe that’d bested and killed him all those years ago, and if Link’s mistaken there’s a certain amount of horrid anger sitting in the back of the birds tone.

Link understands the second the windblight shoots into the air, using Revali’s gale, and more importantly the corrupted overwrought carcass of the champion itself. A casing that mirrored the outside of the shrines fitted itself like armor over the bird, one of his wings either incased or replaced entirely by a cannon.

His talons and the hard surface of the Rito’s feet were replaced by machine entirely, and worst of all, protruding right out of the bird's skull were ancient parts and screws, glowing a luminescent blue in the center between his gouged out eyes.

Link hadn’t liked Revali much in life, respected his abilities no doubt, but seeing him like this doesn’t fail to make Link sick. Especially as old inflamed skin pussed out with purple ooze, and an extra golden eye sprouted off the back of his shoulder.

The projectiles and gusts of wind it sends his way are as tactile and accurate as Revali's arrows, Link’s eyes squeeze shut if only for a second as he poises his broadsword in the perfect position.

The second the blight utilizes Revali’s gale, it’s trajectory pushes it straight into his blade, Revali’s cannon wing falling clean off. Link tries not to think of the fresh blood, less thick than the obsidian ooze that splashes onto the floor and sweeps throughout the air in the wind.  The substance congeals on the knight's cheek, the end feather of an arrow breaking through the paste as he fires off another bomb arrow. His body working on autopilot, having immersed himself in the recesses of his mind after amputating an old ally, no matter that the ally was nothing more than a walking puppet now.

With an agonizing screech, one that borders on a shrilling call, the windblight dies and Link almost wishes to break his silence. Offer up something to the specter that entrusts him with his frightening gale, the same gale that had been used against him so many times, including now. The same gale that had given him the win.

Link struggles with the thought that it may have been a good thing that the champion he was least inclined to had been his first to face. The one to reveal that not only the divine beast had been pulled from their divinity but their pilots as well.

The memories he does have of the others provide more warmth than the bird, and if his first experience with one of these beasts was tinged with warm memories-he didn’t think he’d be able to beat it.

Now as he lands and Vah Medoh takes it’s perch, the teen doesn’t want to remember anything more, not as he heads towards death mountain. Begrudgingly learning more and more about Daruk, the goron who had been a dear friend, before the blond dives into the divine beast.  Into the clutches of Vah Rudania where the encouragement in Daruk’s voice sounds more and more like a death sentence. Each new terminal activated is a step closer to a battle both of the mind and not. 

He doesn’t know why the sword picked him.

The fireblight doesn’t hold any exception in taking over it’s pilots likeness. It’s torso is as big and bulky as any goron he’s ever seen, and his hand, the one not shaped into the luminescent guardian axe blade, Link remembers slamming into his back without any intent of harm but rather in encouragement, a show of brotherhood. 

It’s nearly impossible to get a hit in, the blight utilizing Daruk’s protection without remorse nearly every time Link get’s his sword close enough to nick at guardian plated skin.

Link wonders where he will go next, that and as the blade shifts from blue to a flaming orange, the knight although bound by duty, to Zelda and Hylia, all of Hyrule really, wonders if it’s worth his sanity. 

He wonders if he will survive the next fight, if he’ll even survive this one. His memories sit like spoiled water in his gut, pulling through his body and further soiling him. Had the champions felt this way when the calamity had taken their bodies? Had they already been dead? 

Likely so if Revali’s reaction meant anything, and he can only be grateful that their bodies hadn’t pulled and transfigured into these blights when they’d been conscious. Link admires the strength it must take their souls to instruct him in essentially beating them.

He doesn’t know how he does it, but the fireblight dies, and Link’s back hurts even though he hadn’t been hit. Daruk’s protection will hopefully save him from the more physical wounds he has yet to come, because nothing can save him from the mental ones.

* * *

The second Sidon reveals that the armor was meant for him, from his sister Mipha, who loved him, and her blight and soul was waiting in Vah Ruta, he runs. He runs from the memories, he runs from the water itself, his heart pounding in his chest in something he can only describe as returned love, yet he still doesn’t know her and he doesn’t want to start now when he knows how it ends.

So, he goes to the driest place in all of Hyrule. He goes to Gerudo clad in skimpy clothes, his pride the farthest thing from his mind for it was already lost. 

His memories of Urbosa are easier to handle than Daruk’s, but that is only due to their relationship not being entirely personal. Urbosa had been blunt, kind, and strong. Diligent and painfully wise, but her concern was more closely related to Zelda than it had been him.

And he doesn’t hold any ill will towards that, he was more than happy that the princess had a confidant she actually liked, he also liked that the chieftain could pull Zelda back in when she got a little out of hand.

Link was grateful the woman had also made sure to ensure he understood his station was appreciated when his ruler and world made it seem like it was not.

He respected Urbosa, appreciated her presence, and admittedly feared her in the slightest. So when her voice commands through the confines of Vah Naboris without any hint of broken emotions the other two had held, he knows exactly why, and Link is vibrating out of his skin as he approaches the terminal that would unearth thunderblight ganon and the empowering woman it had overtaken and possessed.

The second the sheikah slate makes contact he is being thrown on his back, her towering form charged with electricity, a horn like mask protruding from her very skull, fanned and feathered by her untamable mane of red hair.

Her armor is sunken into her skin, the blade fixed over her hand, and the guardian shield stretched and warped around her fist sparking with electricity like elastic. It is the most challenging blight in itself so far, and Link wonders if it’s furious powers of electricity were something it’d been created with or something stolen from it’s pilot.

Either or, it’s speed is enough for him to understand how it’d managed to best the chieftain. Not that it wouldn’t have been a close fight, surely Urbosa would have stuck it out till the end out of pure stubbornness and skill. But Link becomes dependent on Daruk’s protection as she rushes him again and again.

With all she’s done for him, all she’s done for Zelda and the other champions, his wrist nearly defies his being, not wanting to hit her. But he has no other choice unless he is ready to die here and now, and knowing more memories are to come next, a mighty death by the thing that’d bested Urbosa certainly wouldn’t be unbecoming for him.

The knight wonders what had been the fatal wound to claim Urbosa? What would potentially be the fatal wound for him?

Her shoulder pad smacks into the side of his face, nearly taking out his eye as she sidechecks him, but it is not his failing, it is hers as she attempts the same move again. This time he flips the swords handle in his hand so that she impales herself on impact.

Her death released an echo of electricity, one that courses through him, and with the way her spirit comes down the steps, watching him with steely eyes as he quivers on the ground. 

Link pulls his fist close to his face, wanting to scream, wanting to die because there is so much running about his head. So much that he’d lost, so much that he had yet to endure. Urbosa’s special power taps into his chest, and as she proclaims it is a great honor once again to help the princess, Link nearly opens his lips to disagree.

Often she says the right things, but that wasn’t it. He wasn’t a knight bound by armor, he was a piece of flesh bound to a darkness sealing sword.

* * *

She is a healer and apparently she is his betrothed if the armor she’d made for him meant anything. Her brother certainly seems to think so, and he knows the large crimson Zora wants to ask what’s making him so nervous and hesitant to get inside the beast, but he refrains from asking.

Likely realizing if it’s painful for him, it is something painful for all.

Her voice is the most welcoming, it is soft and frail, pouring over him like rain. There is something in him that hopes with each terminal activated she will be able to heal more than his body.  And if she’d been alive, it’d have been her love that healed him and not just her power. 

Link approaches the final terminal, he doesn’t bring the slate up, in fact he never reaches to pull it off his hip.

The knight stares at that luminescent terminal, tears welling up in his eyes, and finally the scream that hasn’t managed to breach his throat does. He wails, unprepared, upset, and heartbroken.

This damn thing had taken her away from him, had taken her powers, had taken her body, had taken his heart. The zora armor resting on his chest burned in reminder, and he knows if he doesn’t start the fight now, he’ll never come back to do it again.

He’s less than gentle as he slams the sheikah slate down onto the terminal, nearly cracking the screen before yanking the sword that seals the darkness from his back and slashing.

The waterblight is painstakingly small, petite in the same way she had been, wielding a guardian staff that didn’t compare to her old lightscale trident. Physically it is the easiest fight so far and it is a painstaking reminder that while he was with Zelda, Mipha had more than likely been the first of the champions to die.

A guardian crown protrudes from her once beautiful face, it something similar to the visor on Sidon’s head. Link goes for a quick death, one that didn’t require him to lift a finger or even his blade.

The only reason his sword was really out was to deflect the trident she was flinging at him. Igniting Urbosa’s fury, the lightning eviscerates both her and him immediately. Link had forgotten he had a fairy in his pocket, and he really wishes he didn’t.

Mipha sit’s over him, surrounded by blue flames, healing his wounds, and Link cries because it is not enough. His mind needs to heal as well and the zora princess seems to realize this and cries with him.

He wants to forget again, that or die, because now wet and singed sitting amongst the memories of their love and life before the calamity, waterblight will always be there as well. Haunting him. Haunting her.

“You can do this Link, save the Princess,” she assures, instructs, and he believes her more than he did Urbosa. But then again, Mipha had an unfair advantage, she was the first princess he ever wanted to protect and save.

* * *

It’s the sword that fulfills the prophecy, as it was always said, he was just the swordsman in armor that proclaimed he belonged to another princess. 

Ganon falls, Zelda croons, asks if he truly remembers her, and that he does.

That and so much more.

* * *

Link lays over the cement, the perch for that damnable blade. Without remorse he is plunging the sword through his chest and back into the earth below, hoping, praying, it stole some of the darkness in him as well.

Zelda screams and the champion’s spirits hang their heads, Mipha cries and the surrounding Korok’s watch in blood and horror. The memories having gone bad and his will and ability to fight having gone.

He’d fought enough and the omnipotent Deku tree who watched over him from above agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> Snap: allisonw1122  
> Tumblr/twitter: webtrinsic1122  
> Insta:Webtrinsic


End file.
